A Shortcut for Detecting Alien Worlds
Sam Wormley
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1112/3
By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
12 November 2009
Finding new alien worlds may become a lot easier. Astronomers have discovered that stars
containing low amounts of the element lithium tend to host solar systems, a result that
could dramatically reduce the time it will take to detect another Earth-like planet.
Thus far, attempting to determine whether other stars play host to planets has required
great patience and painstaking measurements. Astronomers scan the skies for two stellar
phenomena. One is the barely perceptible but regular dimming of a star's brightness that
occurs when an orbiting planet passes between the star and Earth. The other is the regular
but minuscule variation in a star's radial velocity--its speed through the galaxy relative
to Earth's speed--which indicates that the star is being tugged by an orbiting planet's
gravity. Astronomers casually refer to the two phenomena as blink and wobble. Efforts to
detect planets via these methods can take months--and they often come up empty.
More: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1112/3
Mike Mickle
You forgot to put a question mark on your title.
"Sam Wormley" <swor...@mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:4B002517...@mchsi.com...
jerry warner
Mike Mickle wrote:
> You forgot to put a question mark on your title.
Save your CO2!
Chris.B
>
> > > Finding new alien worlds may become a lot easier. Astronomers have
> > > discovered that stars containing low amounts of the element lithium tend
> > > to host solar systems, a result that could dramatically reduce the time it
> > > will take to detect another Earth-like planet.
>
Is our own Sun low in Lithium?
Our neighbours may also have discovered the same way to confirm we
exist.
Ho much extra Lithium do we need to spread about to hide our presence
from the little green men?